Thursday, 24 March 2011

Two steps back...

Oh bloody hell. I had a rather bad desaturation today. Eleven percent.
Well it must have been bad because Dad and the nurse started puffing oxygen into me whilst Mum rushed off to find a doctor - well a doctor who wasn't a relative anyway. And I got better. I went pink again and got cross, which is apparently better than listless.
Anyway a very laid back young doctor came to see me and said that I needed a drip, but then couldn't get one in. So he did blood tests which he said were fine. This surprised M&D as my CO2 was the highest it's ever been at 10.5 (this means I wasn't breathing hard or deeply enough). And my CRP, an infection marker, was the highest it's ever been (only 6, but that's three times higher than when they last started antibiotics). And my haemoglobin is 8.8g/dl. I got all ill and listless when it dropped to 8.4 last time.
He said it was reflux and not to worry.

So Dad showed me pictures:

Me, paying attention

Dad showing me, me!

01:20 update
From Dad - Arthur did not settle all afternoon. Finally at 10.30pm we were able to explain and demonstrate that all was not well. Sadly Arthur spent a short period with his saturations in single digits to merit everyone's full attention.

He is assumed to have an infection. He is now on IV antibiotics via a drip (placed first time by the Neonatal Practitioner (v. senior nurse))
He had a chest x-ray which showed some shadowing
He is back in an incubator as he can't regulate his temperature any more.
He is back on CPAP.
He still has periods where he stops breathing for tens of seconds and requires rubbing to start again. If this carries on despite the CPAP he may need reintubating.

We remain very happy with his care and how seriously this episode has been taken. We knew we were kind of 'overdue' a setback. Nevertheless, it's not fun.